It's your typical Monday morning: You grudgingly fight your way out of bed, stumble across campus to class and slump into the first seat you can find in the back of Carleton Auditorium. Your professor walks in and somberly approaches the lectern.
In the next ten minutes, you suddenly snap out of your hangover-induced daze as she informs you that you have one year to complete your degree because budget cuts have forced UF to cut the program.
This is rapidly becoming reality for thousands of UF students and faculty because of the budget cuts forced upon UF by the state Legislature. Putting minute details aside, UF is faced with budget cuts for the academic year, and more are expected as the economy continues to decline.
The quality of a UF degree and education suffers as programs get cut on every level from undergraduate to doctorate. Faculty members are fired on every level, and each year UF will admit 1,000 fewer students.
The State University System, which is comprised of Florida's 11 public universities, must find a way to increase revenues. The solution isn't pleasant, let alone politically palatable.
The best plan of action would be to hike tuition at Florida public universities while simultaneously decreasing Bright Futures eligibility. This plan may not be popular with students, but it is the only realistic solution to the threat facing our UF degrees.
Phasing out Bright Futures would be politically unfeasible in the current economic climate, but this outcome is inevitable, according to the Chair of the State Senate Committee on Education.
Aside from being the only possible course of action, it actually won't prevent many students from attending a Florida public university.
According to state figures, the average family income of a student at UF is $100,000 a year. When coupled with the fact that Floridians pay less for their education than residents of most other states - about $3,300, compared with the national average of $6,100 - a tuition increase and tougher eligibility requirements for Bright Futures are both morally and fiscally acceptable.
Students who need help paying for school can get it from need-based scholarships and Bright Futures, which would still pay up to $3,300 a year. Although this isn't a full ride, which Bright Futures currently provides for some students, it would cover more than half of tuition costs and force high school students to work harder to boost their grades.
Increasing tuition by just $2,000 a year would generate more than $70 million for UF, which easily covers the $47 million in budget cuts we are saddled with. This increase would keep education costs well below the national average, maintaining the State of Florida's famous affordability.
In the current economic meltdown, it is selfish and impractical to allow the quality of a UF degree to deteriorate as funding melts away.
UF must raise tuition and the state must make Bright Futures more competitive. Your future could depend on it.
Kyle Robisch is a political science and economics sophomore. His column appears on Mondays.
